Many newspaper publishers say the ad sales slump has stopped, but not at Wapo: Both print and Web ad declines accelerated over the last quarter. Newsweek, meanwhile, saw its ad sales drop by half.
So now that the economy is officially growing again, when will marketers start spending again? It can’t happen soon enough for ad-supported companies (and their employees). Today’s unpleasant news: Magazine heavyweight Meredith says things are getting better, but they’re still worse than last year, which was pretty bad to begin with.
The owner of The Wall Street Journal tries to convince other publishers join up and charge readers for online news. Tough job! Even tougher: Creating news worth paying for.
Have you bought a Kindle? Do you plan on buying a Kindle? If you answered yes to either question, you’re part of a not-that-small group: JP Morgan estimates that some 10 million Americans either own one of Amazon’s e-book readers or plan to get one soon. Meanwhile, whatever happened to Amazon’s plan to bundle newspaper subscriptions with its DX reader?
Want access to the Washington D.C. elite? The city’s hometown paper is happy to arrange that for you provided you’re willing to pay between $25,000 and $250,000. The caveat: That fee won’t include access to the Washington Post’s editorial staff. But I bet that will change sooner than later.
At some point, this will no longer be a coincidence: Once again, Amazon’s newest e-book reader has sold out shortly after launch. This time, it’s the Kindle DX, the super-sized reader with the super-sized price tag. Amazon started selling the DX three days ago, and by yesterday afternoon the e-commerce giant said it was cleaned out. The next batch won’t arrive until next week.
The smarter-than-they-look guys at CollegeHumor.com attract some seven million unique visitors a month, are making smart strides in Web video and have their own show on MTV. And when they’re not doing that, they monkey with Amazon.com.
Just to be clear: Google still doesn’t plan on bailing out the New York Times or any other paper. As a buyer, at least. CEO Eric Schmidt reiterated that position, which he’s already made a couple times this year, in an interview with the Financial Times. Schmidt did allow, though, that Google had at least mulled the idea at one point.
Remember last week when Google was forced to explain why it wasn’t single-handedly destroying American newspapers? Turns out the company is in talks with some of the country’s biggest newspapers to…well, save them. But that isn’t the right phrase either. In fact, it’s not clear how to describe the talks. But we do know that Google is chatting with both the Washington Post and the New York Times, because that’s what employees of the Washington Post and the New York Times are reporting today.
Charge people who want to read stuff online? Heresy in the media world until recently. Now everyone is noodling with it, and News Corp. is charging hard. Rupert Murdoch says he plans on exporting The Wall Street Journal’s subscription model to other sites soon–but not via Amazon’s Kindle.
Even under the best of circumstances, Amazon’s new Kindle DX wouldn’t “save the newspaper business.” But since the newspapers are desperate to protect their dying print business, this thing may never get off the ground at all.
No shock that the Washington Post had a miserable fourth quarter. At least the paper’s online business didn’t fall off a cliff in Q4–which is more than you can say about the New York Times.
Barack Obama caused a small stir among us media navel gazers when he called on the Huffington Post’s Sam Stein during his press conference this week. Time to get over it. “The Daily Show” can help.
The Obama presidency-to-be has already provided a boost for media companies. So it will be nearly impossible to boot up your browser and not end up watching a live stream of the pomp and circumstance–we’ll even have coverage at All Things Digital! But here’s a guide, just in case your online venue of choice gets the hiccups.
The New York Times is already trying to mortgage its headquarters and unload assets like its stake in the Boston Red Sox. So, what’s left to sell? The front page. CBS has taken out the first display ad the paper has ever allowed on the front of its print edition. This is only historic because the Times management has been so stubborn about keeping its front page pristine–it’s hard to imagine that any reader will care. Of course, the cash-crunched media company really doesn’t have any choice at this point.
Peter Kafka has been covering media and technology since 1997, when he joined the staff of Forbes magazine. Most recently, he has been the managing editor of the tech and media Web site, Silicon Alley Insider. Read more »
Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.
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